In the midst of an economic crisis, it’s no surprise that state lotteries are flourishing. After all, the math is straightforward: if a bettor keeps buying tickets, he or she can potentially win a big prize. In fact, the earliest lotteries to offer prizes in cash were probably held in the Low Countries in the 15th century to raise money for town fortifications and to help the poor.

In these early lotteries, a bettor would write his name on a receipt that he or she deposited with the lottery organization to be shuffled and possibly selected in the lottery drawing. A computer system is now often used to record a bettor’s numbered ticket and the numbers or other symbols that he or she has chosen, although some modern lotteries allow the bettor to mark a box or section on the playslip to indicate that he or she accepts a random set of numbers.

The value of winning a lottery can depend on whether the non-monetary benefits of entertainment or other items that are scarce enough to be desirable outweigh the disutility of a monetary loss. Lotteries are a common form of distribution for limited items that have high demand, such as kindergarten admissions at a reputable school or spaces in a subsidized housing complex.

One popular way to play the lottery is by using pull-tab tickets. These are similar to scratch-offs in that they contain numbers hidden behind a perforated paper tab that is torn off and discarded. They usually cost a little less than scratch-offs, but they also typically pay out small amounts of money. Many players try to optimize their selections by avoiding numbers that are clustered together or that end in the same digit.